Blumenthal to U.S. Attorney General: protect the press’ First Amendment rights

Updated 3:57 pm, Monday, May 22, 2017

Blumenthal to U.S. Attorney General: protect the press’ First Amendment rights

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U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Monday asked U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to protect the free press, calling the exercise of its First Amendments rights a hallmark of democracy.

“I write with great concern regarding a recent report in the New York Times alleging that President Trump suggested to former F.B.I. Director James Comey that he should consider jailing journalists for publishing classified information,” Blumenthal wrote to Sessions in a letter on Monday. “This account is among several recent reports of statements attacking and undermining the media.”

Blumenthal, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, wrote he was concerned about “a barrage of baseless attempts by the President and members of his administration to discredit the media and to deter accurate press coverage of the administration’s actions and policies.”

“At this extraordinary moment in our history, the press is simply serving - as it has done since our nation’s founding - to uncover and report vital information, expose wrongdoing, and hold officials accountable.” Blumenthal wrote. “Fear of autocratic censorship led to the First Amendment, which broad, general threats of criminal prosecution violate in spirit if not in law.”

Blumenthal asked Sessions to uphold current Department of Justice guidelines, which bar legal action against reporters except under special circumstances that are important to an investigation.